2 l December
4 - 10, 2022
Northwest Oregon Screen Scene
BY JAY BOBBIN
‘The Talk’s’ Amanda Kloots is ‘Fit
for Christmas’
Paul Greene and Amanda
Kloots star in Sunday’s new
CBS movie “Fit for Christmas.”
In Focus
“America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Genera-
tion: Season 1” (Prime Video — series premiere,
Dec. 9)
Jeannie Mai Jenkins hosts this 10 episode com-
petition series in which contestants undertake a
series of challenges that test their culinary abilities
and on-camera personality. The winner in the end,
as determined by judges Dan Souza, Elle Simone
Scott, Jack Bishop and Julia Collin Davison, re-
ceives the opportunity to write their own cookbook
and a $100,000 prize to fund the culinary business
of their dreams.
“Must Love Christmas” (CBS — TV movie
premiere, Dec. 11)
Renowned romance novelist Natalie (Liza La-
pira), famous for her Christmas-themed books, finds
For Amanda Kloots, CBS is more than just “Talk”
these days.
The co-host of the network’s weekday program
“The Talk” has a big creative hand in “Fit for
Christmas,” a new movie that airs there Sunday,
Dec. 4. Also an executive producer and (with
screenwriter Anna White) the co-creator of the
story, Kloots revisits her earlier career by playing a
fitness instructor who opposes the redevelopment
of the local community center in Mistletoe, Mont.
She ends up in a romance with the businessman
(Hallmark Channel-movie veteran Paul Greene) who
has designs on the property. “All My Children” alum
Rebecca Budig also stars for director Jessica Harmon,
who’s an actress as well (“The 100,” “iZombie”).
“We went on hiatus (from ‘The Talk’) in August,”
Kloots explains, “and I pretty much flew a couple of
days later off to Vancouver to shoot the film on my
hiatus, finished the movie, came back and started
Season 13 of ‘The Talk.’ No rest.” Still, that was fine
with Kloots, who was excited to see her idea literally
come to life.
“I helped conceptualize the entire movie right
up until we were filming,” she reports, “and it was
amazing. There was a day on set – I’ll never forget
it – when we were filming at the Mistletoe Inn, and
it was so perfectly Christmas. And I looked around,
and I just I couldn’t believe it was happening. I
literally pinched myself, because I remembered being
in my bed in July of 2020 thinking of this idea
at 3:00 in the morning, and then having it come
to life, it was just so beautiful. And it just felt like
magic.”
Greene worked with writer White previously (on
last year’s “Christmas CEO”), but he says, “What
made this so different was working with Amanda in
this way, knowing that this was her first experience
in this way. It just had this crackling newness and
possibility to it that was really unique. It was very in-
the-moment, spontaneous and exciting.
“There was this chemistry and friendship between
all of us actors, really,” adds Greene, “and especially
between Amanda and myself, like, from the first
minute. We were just like long-lost friends, and that
translated really quickly into a feeling of having each
other’s backs in the scenes and improvising.”
Partially because of her opportunity with “Fit for
Christmas,” Kloots (who lost her Broadway-actor
husband Nick Cordero to COVID-19 in 2020)
reflects, “I can’t believe what I’m doing right now,
when I look at my life and how much has changed,
especially in the last three years. I just am constantly
blown away by the idea of how life can change so
quickly, and how dreams can come true.”
herself snowbound in the charming small town of
Cranberry Falls. There, she unexpectedly becomes
involved in a love triangle with her childhood crush
Caleb (Nathan Witte) as well as Nick (Neal Bled-
soe), a reporter determined to interview her to save
his dying magazine in this 2022 TV movie premiere.
“Kindred” (Hulu — limited series premiere,
Dec. 13)
Octavia E. Butler’s novel served as the basis for
this FX on Hulu original drama series about a young
Black woman who embarks on her future in Los
Angeles only to find herself pulled back and forth in
time, emerging at a 19th century plantation to which
her family is linked. Mallori Johnson stars as the
central character, Dana James; Micah Stock, Ryan
Kwanten and Gayle Rankin also star.
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